NFL Tips: Keenan key in our 18/1 Seahawks @ Bears Bet Builder

Our tipster Andrew Cunneen shakes down Thursday night's clash.

Seahawks @ Bears tips

Seattle (-3.5)
Keenan Allen to score anytime
Keenan Allen over 59.5 receiving yards
DK Metcalf under 59.5 receiving yards

Friday December 27 1.15am: Seattle Seahawks @ Chicago Bears
Soldier Field, Chicago
TV: Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports NFL

Seattle (-3.5)

Seattle’s season has gone pretty much exactly how you’d expect it to have gone to this point. Beat the worst team in your division. Split with the best team (on paper). Lose the games you expect to lose, and win the games you expect to win.

Well, switch the Giants and the Broncos results and you’re probably right about there. Their average margin of victory is also ten points.

Basically, if things go right – they go very right. But if something is off, forget about it. There’s next to no benefit backing Seattle to win a close game, especially against a team as volatile as the Bears.

Keenan Allen to Score Anytime

A lot was said about Caleb Williams coming into the league with the best situation any rookie had ever seen. He had a tonne of playmakers.

Issue was, they just compiled talent and it wasn’t very scheme-compatible. But when you get a team who plays a lot of man coverage, then you’re back to talent equation again.

Since getting healthy, Keenan Allen has looked like a top-twenty wideout again. He had a tough assignment last week going against the Bears, and he hauled in ten catches for 140+ and a score.

As he was for Rivers and Herbert, Allen is now the safety blanket in Chicago for Caleb.

Keenan Allen

Keenan Allen Over 59.5 Receiving Yards

And to be more specific, Seattle run a tonne of pressure. They’ll blitz the life out of Williams, and their primary design for pressure beaters involves Keenan Allen breaking back across the formation in the line of sight of the quarterback.

This means that Allen will rack up receptions, and even though he doesn’t quite have the engine of some of these guys, he’s got elusiveness – a really understated ability in the modern NFL.

This is a good bet particularly when you think that a lot of what Odunze and Moore are starting to do is outside releases and finding spots in those intermediate areas.

DK Metcalf under 59.5 receiving yards

From one ailing body to a freakish athlete, backing this fella to go under seems weird based on name value, but the tape from last week saw him take a few really poor release angles from his opposing corner. The route would be designed for him to break outside, but instead he’s break inside.

Given how specific these route concepts are, he’s not only taking himself out of the play but many others too, if he doesn’t read his own job correctly. He had just three receptions last week, and that’s going to be a trend going forward, as the team can save $11 million by releasing him.

Seahawks @ Bears tips

Seattle (-3.5)
Keenan Allen to score anytime
Keenan Allen over 59.5 receiving yards
DK Metcalf under 59.5 receiving yards

*All odds and lines quoted are accurate at time of publication but are subject to change

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